Seeing the news footage from London of people crushed onto the Tube trains and desperately unable to keep a social distance can be quite concerning viewing.
In many cases they are key workers heading to work and of course others, who can’t work from home, and have no choice but to jump onto still crowded trains as they play their part in keeping the economy ticking over during the present crisis.
However despite the chaos it was the warning signs on the floor of the concourse platforms and in the trains which also caught my eye – ‘Mind The Gap’.
The gap in question is the distance between the edge of the train carriage and the platform, which on some occasions, in my experience, can prove to be quite substantial, causing one to actually have to jump or hop out of the train to the safety of the concrete beyond.
The sign is there to make sure we are all aware of the ‘gap’ lest we fall between train and platform and be crushed to bits as well as electrocuted.
And of course right now a gap is being encouraged between us all, a 2m gap in fact, ensuring that we are a safe distance and unable to infect one another with the virus. This is a very necessary gap, one intended to save lives.
It struck me though that there is also a gap between us and God and rather than saving lives, the gap leads to death. We call the gap, sin, something which creates distance between us and God, a distance that at the time of creation never existed and then yer man went and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”) and the world started to experience the consequences of sin.
Yet this gap of sin is not something which God encourages. In fact he hates it. Unlike the government, which rightly tells us to keep our distance, God is lovingly desperate to close the gap and loved us so much that he sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and in doing so bridge the gap (destroy sin) and allow humankind and God our Father to once again be intimately related – NO GAP! NO SIN! NO DEATH!
The challenge of course is, ‘What’s your view of the gap/sin?’ Is it something you are prepared to tolerate in your life and all the consequences of the that, the main one being death, or would you like to close the gap and get to know the Father, through the Son and enjoy life – FOREVER?
Now you may well ask why that’s important; why would you do that – close the gap? Well, you’re a smart person and given the following questions I respectfully suggest you might respond accordingly.
1/ Drown in the sea or be saved by the RNLI when you get into trouble? ANS – Be saved.
2/ Freeze to death in the winter after you’ve broken your leg climbing Ben Nevis or be saved by Mountain Rescue? ANS – Be saved.
3/ Die prematurely following a heart attack or have a successful heart operation and live out your life? ANS – Be saved
So what’s so hard about the following question: Die because of sin or be saved by believing in Jesus and living a life eternal?
Just a thought…. Blessings, Carlton